ENG-1976 — Page 225

COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT

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or under construction 323 double-deck buses and 21 single-deck buses for progressive addition to the fleet.

The China Motor Bus Company operates services on 66 routes on Hong Kong Island as well as the joint services with KMB through the cross-harbour tunnel. The company has a fleet of 671 double-deck and 31 single-deck vehicles, 99.7 per cent of which are now one-man operated. In 1976 they carried an average of 629,934 passengers a day compared with 591,129 in 1975. The company operated 26.4 million miles and introduced eight new routes to meet traffic demands. Progress continued with converting single-deck buses to double deckers and the total carrying capacity in- creased by 15 per cent to 63,758. At the year end, the company had on order or under construction 133 double-deck buses. Traffic management schemes were introduced in Central and North Point to improve bus operating speeds. In March 1976 there was a fare increase-averaging 50 per cent-on CMB routes other than cross-harbour routes. The fares now range from 30 cents to one dollar.

On the cross-harbour bus routes, the two companies carried an average of 311,087 passengers a day-32 per cent more than in 1975. The annual mileage operated increased by 18 per cent to 12 million miles.

On Lantau Island, the New Lantau Bus Company operates along 18 miles of road, much of which is single lane with passing bays. Recreational traffic demand on Sundays and public holidays is 150 per cent greater than the average weekday passenger traffic of 3,587. During the year, 877,419 miles were operated on five routes using 44 single-deck buses.

An estimated 1.6 million passengers a day are carried by 14-seater public light buses, or minibuses, compared with an estimated 2.6 million passengers carried daily by the franchised bus services. There were 4,346 minibuses registered at the end of the year. They may ply for hire anywhere except on roads or in areas where prohibi- tions or kerbside stopping restrictions apply. As minibus drivers tend to stop indis- criminately and obstruct traffic flow, more restricted and prohibited zones have had to be introduced. An increasing number of minibus operators are showing interest in providing feeder routes over roads generally unsuitable for conventional full sized buses. Six 'maxi-cab' feeder routes with fixed fares and stopping places are now in operation on Hong Kong Island carrying 9,973 passengers daily.

Coaches for sightseeing tours and school and factory buses are operated by a number of companies, while some schools and factories provide their own private omnibus and light bus services. At the end of 1976 the number of vehicles licensed for these purposes totalled 2,718.

Trams

Hongkong Tramways operates five services over 19 miles of track along the north shore of Hong Kong Island between Kennedy Town and Shau Kei Wan. During the year the company's fleet of 162 double-deck tramcars and 22 single-deck trailers carried 128 million passengers and covered 6.2 million miles. This represents the highest utilisation of any road passenger transport service in Hong Kong. Each

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